Plum Wizard Stories
by TT's Miscellany
Summary: AU mix of the Stephanie Plum Series and the Harry Potter World. So far only short stories, all are Babe and from Ranger's POV. Not sure if there will be more, but, enjoy!
1. Plum Wizard: Explosive Discovery

_Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich. The world of Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. They are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended._

_Note: My muse is being weird again. I don't even like Harry Potter, so I have no clue from whence this came!_

_AU – merging of Harry Potter and Stephanie Plum worlds_

_Warnings: Babe, general weirdness_

_Rating: Suitable for all ages._

**Explosive Discovery**

By TT

Ranger leaned back in his chair and sighed. Reaching up, he rubbed his hand across his forehead and wondered, once again, why he had ever become involved in this particular aspect of security.

As his eyes fell on the sender's name, he remembered.

Growing up in his family hadn't been easy, but it was all he knew, so he though it was normal.

He fully believed it was normal for mothers and grandmothers to supervise house elves while researching esoteric magical references. And didn't everyone's father head off each day to take a part in the Ministry Of Magic?

His older siblings all went through basic preparations before heading off to Ramsley, the magic school in Florida. Before that, they attended muggle schools to learn the basics of the muggle world – the world in which they would live and interact. After all, Manosos were known for accepting the diversity of all people – be they wizard, muggle or other.

By the time he started Kindergarten, he had yet to show any signs of magic. He didn't think twice about it, assuming his skills would come later.

Before he started first grade, Carlos had overheard his parents' whispered conversation, worry evident in their voices.

On his seventh birthday, Carlos had woken up shortly after being put to bed and headed downstairs to see if he could have a glass of water. It was while he was on the stairs he heard his parents talking.

"_He's seven, now," his mother said. "There should have been some sign by now, some inkling of it."_

"_Calm down, Carina," Carlos' father soothed. "So what if he hasn't shown any magic yet. He's still young. Some don't show it until the age of ten. And even if he never shows magic, does it really matter? He's still our son."_

"_You're right," Carlos' mother agreed. "I don't know what I was thinking. We just need to make sure he knows he's loved whether he has magic or not."_

Ranger could remember how he felt, like someone had hit him in the chest. It had never crossed his mind that he might not have magic that he might not go to Ramsley like the rest of his siblings, like his family had for generations.

As he grew, it became obvious that he was indeed a muggle in a family of wizards. His siblings, older and younger, had used that to their advantage and made his life miserable.

Not having any way to retaliate, he had acted out any way he could. Delinquent was soon added to his title of muggle.

Things kept getting worse. Eventually, his father, mother and grandparents interceded. Though he hadn't meant to, the withdrawal symptoms were so bad, he answered anything they asked and the truth of his sibling's actions spilled out.

His parents sent him to live with his grandparents after the drugs were out of his system. Life away from his siblings was bearable. It also helped that Grandma Rosa refused to hire house elves. She cooked, cleaned and maintained her house the same way muggles did.

It was mainly through his grandparents efforts that he stayed focused and managed to graduate high school in two years. As they pointed out on his graduation day, there had never been any question about his intelligence, just about some of his choices.

The two years at Rutgers had been interesting, but he was still restless. It felt as if there was something more waiting for him.

That was how he ended up in the army. And it had changed him and his life.

When he had gotten out of the army, he had moved back to Miami. While in the army, he had met many different people and developed a plan for his future. He knew what he wanted to do and knew security would be his future.

Rangeman had been up and running for just over year when his father called him and asked him to attend an important meeting the next day. Initially, Ranger resisted. His company was growing, but they were still new, still not quite as financially solvent as he would like. One of the local jewelry stores had called for a meeting and it was set for tomorrow afternoon.

Unfortunately, he knew he couldn't avoid a summons by his father.

Rising from his desk he walked down the hall to let Tank know about the change in plans. Tank wasn't always comfortable with clients, but he just didn't' have a choice.

The following day, his father had appeared with seven of his cohorts on the doorstep of Rangeman.

When they left eight hours later, Rangeman had a very lucrative contract to provide security for Ramsley, and a sudden need for wizards on its payroll.

Over the next few years, two more contracts from two other wizard schools were signed by Rangeman.

The solid financial foundation these contracts provided allowed Ranger to expand his business.

Faced with old memories and prejudices, he had left the Miami office in charge of all things magical and chose Trenton as his new base of operations. There were no wizard schools anywhere in New Jersey and it would put him within an hour of his grandparents.

Though getting started in a new city without the proper connections was difficult, Ranger worked through it. Tank eventually moved up to Trenton with him and the two of them began hiring, making sure there were no magical contracts in Trenton and ensuring they hired no wizards. In fact, no wizard had ever set foot in the Trenton Rangeman building.

Now, all these years later, his brother had requested Ranger's help with placing and protecting a wizard in the Trenton area. Supposedly, the new arrival would be there for identification and recruitment. The wizard he was replacing had recently passed away after mistaking his gas pedal for his break pedal while headed for the side of a hill.

What was worse, despite knowing that Rangeman Trenton was a magic-free building, Vargas, who he had left in charge of the Miami office, had already set up a meeting with the new arrival, Ranger's brother and a wizard representative from the Miami office in the third-floor meeting room of the Trenton office.

Ranger would have to be sure to speak to Vargas. Such behavior was unacceptable.

A knock on his door distracted him. "Enter," he commanded, his expression softening. There was only one person at Rangeman who knocked that softly.

As expected, Stephanie opened the door and poked her head into the office. "You ready to go grab dinner before our stake-out?" she asked, slowly entering the room.

Ranger glanced once more at the email and then shut the lid of his laptop. "Yeah, Babe," he agreed. "Let's go."

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_Later That Night_

Stephanie stood on the sidewalk blinking as the flames spread from one car to the next.

Ranger worked to suppress his amusement, but knew it was a hopeless fight. Slipping an arm around Stephanie's waist, he leaned over and placed a kiss on her temple. "You never disappoint," he told her.

Startling, slightly, Stephanie turned and sent an exasperated look at Ranger. She gently slapped him on the chest with the back of her hand. "It wasn't my fault!" she declared.

Suppressed laughter shook Ranger's frame. "It never is, Babe," he assured.

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_The Next Day_

Ranger got the call that his next appointment had arrived. Taking a deep breath, he stood and walked out of his office, headed toward the stairs. He would meet them in the Lobby.

As he entered the Lobby, he immediately identified his brother and Martin Grace, a wizard from the Miami office. He scanned the third man, the new arrival, Maxwell Honeysuckle. Maxwell was shorter than Ranger and looked delicate, almost fragile. Experience told Ranger that his appearance was very deceiving. The man may not be physically powerful, but even Ranger could feel the aura of magic surrounding him.

Drawing closer, Ranger heard Honeysuckle say, "And I'm telling you, there is a wizard in this place."

Ranger's brother let out a sigh. "I'm just not feeling anything, Max," he countered. "And Martin can verify that there are no wizards on the payroll here in Trenton."

Max rolled his eyes. "You've spent too much time in Florida," he grumbled at Ranger's brother. "Out there, in the real worlds, there are all sorts of different magics. They blend and merge all the time. In Oklahoma, some of the strongest wizards don't read as wizards at all because they blend Native American and regular magic. There is someone here, in this building that is a wizard with that same sort of blended magic. I can feel it, but whatever it's blended with is keeping the presence of any magic hidden."

That information had Ranger's eyebrows both rising. He had an unidentified wizard in the office. That meant either one of his men was lying to him or the man didn't know he was a wizard at all. Neither was a good option. Clearing his throat, he interrupted, "Gentlemen." All three turned to look at him. He offered a friendly smile. "Welcome to Rangeman, Trenton. If you'll follow me, we can head up to the conference room to begin discussing your needs and how Rangeman can meet them."

The three men agreed and followed them up.

An hour later, Ranger was struggling to reign in his temper. The three wizards were arguing over a particular point, yet again. If he had his druthers, Ranger would throw them all out, but he was, unfortunately, too professional to do so.

A knock at the conference room door interrupted his thoughts. "Come," he called out.

The door opened and Stephanie stepped in holding a folder.

She had only taken two steps into the room when Maxwell stopped talking. He rose from his seat so quickly; the chair flew backward into the wall. With his jaw dropping open and his eyes opening wide, he stood still for several seconds.

Ranger saw Stephanie keep a wary eye on the man as she headed down the side of the room toward Ranger. She was only a few steps away when Maxwell seemed to recover himself.

"You're him, or, rather, her! You're the wizard!" he exclaimed.

Stephanie froze, looking much like a deer caught in headlights. Eventually, she turned to look at Ranger.

Ranger had frozen in place when Honeysuckle made his proclamation. He turned his eyes toward Stephanie and saw her look. Standing, he reached out toward his Babe. She came without protest and he wrapped an arm around her, keeping her close.

"Is he nuts?" Stephanie whispered. "Should I call for backup?"

Before Ranger could say anything, Max continued. "I have no idea what it's blended with, but you're definitely a wizard and a fairly powerful one. Have you ever been trained?" he demanded.

"Ranger?" Stephanie squeaked.

Ranger looked at Martin and indicated the door. He watched as his employee rose and closed the door before he turned toward Max. "Are you absolutely certain?"

Max looked almost insulted. "Of course I'm certain," he declared. "I've just never seen this particular blend of magic before. I'm not sure what it is." Then, addressing Stephanie directly once more, he asked, "What's your background, my dear? Your family history?"

Stephanie's eyes turned toward Ranger once more.

Ranger sighed and sat in his chair, drawing Stephanie into his lap. Glancing at the men he explained, "She doesn't know anything about your world. She doesn't even know it exists. We need to explain that first. And to answer your question, Mr. Honeysuckle, her background is Italian and Hungarian."

Max got a distant look in his eyes and began muttering to himself. "Hungary. Hungary." He snapped his fingers. "Gypsies!" he cried in triumph. Looking at Stephanie, he seemed fascinated. "I've never seen a gypsy blend with regular magic. Why, it's completely unheard of and, as far as I know, should be impossible! I can only imagine the combination would be, well, explosive to say the least."

Ranger's mind immediately conjured images of the destruction from the previous night. That image combined with several other incidents caused him to close his eyes and sigh in resignation. It all made sense suddenly. Stephanie was an untrained wizard. "Babe," he said, holding her eyes with his own. "Do you trust me?"

"Absolutely," Stephanie replied without hesitation.

Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on her temple. "Good. Because what I'm about to tell you is absolutely true and it's going to rock your view of the world." He saw a hint of apprehension creep into Stephanie's eyes. "It's OK, Babe," he soothed.

Seven hours later, after revealing the truth of the wizard world, bringing Grandma Mazur in to confirm their suspicions about the gypsy magic and finally convincing Stephanie of the truth of Maxwell's statement, a nearly overwhelmed Stephanie sat silently on Ranger's lap, her head resting on his shoulder.

They were alone in the conference room right now.

"So the explosions were my fault," she whispered.

Ranger tightened his arms around her. "Not all of them, Babe. Remember the funeral home was Grandma Mazur and you weren't responsible for the bombs."

A heavy sigh escaped Stephanie. "No," she countered, "I'm just responsible for making them bigger than they should be and attracting them in the first place."

Unable to disagree, Ranger simply nodded.

"I don't know if I want to do this training," she whispered. "I know I don't want to go to school again and I really don't want to move to Miami."

Ranger heard the rest of that statement in his heart. _I don't want to move to Miami and be away from you._ "We'll figure it out, Babe," he assured, tipping her face upward so he could see her eyes, "but not tonight."

End


	2. Plum Wizard: Mischief Managed

_Disclaimer: The Characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich. The world of Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. Both are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended._

_NOTE: This is a follow-up to my story "Explosive Discovery" which can be found at __._

**Mischief Managed**

By TT

Ranger stepped into the dim apartment and sighed in relief. Missions were taking more out of him each go. As much as he hated to admit it, as his age continued to increase, his energy reserves decreased. Most people his age failed to realize this change, but, given his training and experience, he could tell the difference.

Moving further into the apartment, he noted a flickering light in the living room area.

When Stephanie had started working on her magic, Maxwell Honeysuckle, the magic school recruiter/wizard identifier, had mentioned the need for a fireplace to make transportation between the school and the apartment easier and faster. After commissioning that change, Ranger had added a few others to the apartment on seven as well. As the architect began working on the changes, Ranger began working on his relationship with Stephanie. When the work on the seventh floor finished, Ranger and Stephanie were ready to move in together.

Since that day, his life had taken many interesting twists and turns. He regretted none of them.

Having come from such a magical family, Ranger originally feared some of the same problems he experienced with his siblings. A smile curved his mouth. He should have known Stephanie would be different. Though amazingly adept at magic, quickly learning the basics and progressing to more advanced and levels, she didn't use it very much. Though she could conjure a cup of coffee, she still took the time to go to the coffee maker and make it by hand. With her gypsy heritage mixed in with her wizarding skills, she could see the future, bless, curse and much more at a level few wizards ever attained. Instead she woke up each day with no more clue about what would happen than anyone else.

After discovering Ranger now had a fireplace in his apartment, his Grandma Rosa came to visit. While his whole family had met Stephanie, only Grandma Rosa knew of Stepahnie's being a wizard. More excited by the fact Ranger and Stephanie were together than Stephanie's unusual brand of magic, Rosa had become a welcome visitor.

Both Stephanie and he had been truly touched when Grandma Rosa stopped by and presented them with all of her old magic books as well as old journals and family photo albums. He could still imagine the wide-eyed wonder with which Stephanie had viewed the moving photographs.

Of course, all those happy memories would be pushed aside for an evening while he spent time with his babe. The only good part of going 'in the wind' anymore was Stephanie's welcome home. She never disappointed.

As he stepped into the living room, he spotted Stephanie sitting on the couch, leaning forward, looking at something on the coffee table. The contrast of her pale skin and the red diaphanous scrap of material she wore quickly caught his attention. He didn't get more than another step toward her before Stephanie sat up, turned toward him and sprang from her position, launching herself at him.

Fortunately, Ranger had sustained no injuries this time around and managed to catch his flying vixen. After several minutes, they broke their kiss, both of them panting and wanting more.

After a moment of staring into her azure colored eyes, Ranger reclaimed Stephanie's lips and started moving them toward the bedroom.

Late the next morning, Ranger stretched as he walked out of the bedroom. He listened to the water running in the shower and knew he would just about have time to make coffee before Stephanie joined him for breakfast.

After starting the coffee, he turned and spotted a fairly large piece of paper spread across the coffee table. He recalled Stephanie had been bent over it the previous night as if watching something. Heading into the living room, he took a seat on the couch and shifted the paper.

Ranger quickly identified the markings on the paper as a general outline of each floor of the Rangeman building. He noted the various rooms were labeled, but what struck him as odd were the names appearing on each floor. Even stranger were the tiny footprints that appeared next to the names as they moved across the page.

He vaguely noted that the movement on the paper reminded him of the moving pictures his family had, but he couldn't figure out why there were names moving instead of images.

Glancing up, he watched with a warm smile as a freshly showered Stephanie came out of the bedroom and made a beeline to the coffee maker. She didn't look anywhere else and quickly poured herself a cup of the black liquid. After preparing it the way she liked and taking a few sips, she looked around the room, smiling when she saw him.

As she moved across the living space to the couch, Ranger took the time to appreciate her movements. He really loved this woman.

"You've seen my map," she said, indicating the drawing on the table.

"I have," he agreed. "I also know it's each floor of the Rangeman building. But why are my men's names on it, not to mention ours, and why is it showing footprints when they move?"

Stephanie set aside her coffee and leaned back into the couch. Ranger followed her move and drew her close, wrapping an arm around her.

"Well," she admitted, not meeting his eyes as her fingers fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. "I was going through Grandma Rosa's old books and found instructions for making a map like this. I though, if I could figure out how to do it, I might be able to make one for Trenton and make it a lot easier to find our skips."

"That sounds like a good idea," Ranger encouraged, feeling a little queasy at the thought of relying on magic.

Stephanie's eyes flashed up to his for a second before once more locking on her fingers. "Well, Grandma Rosa stopped by and we talked about it. It turns out the last group who created a map like this were a group of students at a school called Hogwarts. They found references to the map and got in touch with Grandma Rosa to help them."

Though he always liked to hear his Babe's voice, Ranger found himself becoming impatient with her lengthy story. He knew, without a doubt, that Stephanie was stalling. When she remained silent for too long, he prompted, "And…"

A sigh escaped Stephanie. "Well, Trenton's just too big to do, but I really liked the idea so I kept it in mind. And then, one night, I got bored, so I started making the apartment. After that, I realized how much I hated the guys sneaking up on me when it was time to go to the range or the gym or something, so I started adding the other floors and added them in to it." She shrugged, slightly and finally met Ranger's eyes. "I hope you don't mind. No one else knows about it other than Grandma Rosa, and now you…"

Drawing her closer still, Ranger placed a kiss on her temple and held her. Though his own experience with magic and magical things had been less than positive, he knew he needed to encourage Stephanie with her skills. His eyes drifted toward the map once more. He really didn't need it since the whole building was monitored. All he needed to do to find out the present location of anyone in the building was ask. Still… if they lost power or someone broke in, Ranger would have a strategic advantage with the map… "I don't mind, Babe," he assured. "But all of the men here are non-magical and know nothing of the magical world. You need to be careful not to let them see this."

Stephanie turned her head and placed a quick, firm kiss on his lips. "No problem, Batman," she assured. "Remember those kids I told you about? Well, they passworded their map and I found out how to do the same. The password to get it to appear is different than what they used, but when I'm done with the map I just have to tell it, 'mischief managed'.".

Ranger chuckled slightly at the password and kissed his woman. "Babe."

The End


End file.
